New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #31

Donald Thompsonwrote:

I'm actually looking forward to seeing how this "victory" works out Donnie, continue with your boogie woogie!

Donald, it’s hard to comprehend how Trump would serve as the best choice for a leader of the pre-– Goldwater Republican party revival you seem to prefer. Please elaborate.

Lori, would you be interested in hearing my insights, such as they are, from a retired ER doc? 

I retired >5 years ago after >20 years in the pit, so am definitely not especially up to date, and definitely was never a vascular specialist, so my thoughts may or may not be valuable. 

Regardless, I'm happy to share what I do know.

Lmk here, (or via DM if you would rather keep things private)

Best wishes to Tony- he sounds like a fighter and will probably outlive all of us

apogeewrote:

Donald, it’s hard to comprehend how Trump would serve as the best choice for a leader of the pre-– Goldwater Republican party revival you seem to prefer. Please elaborate.

I never mentioned a " pre-Goldwater Republican revival" . In any case  the conservative movement in 2024 is a far different entity than existed in the Goldwater days. In fact, Goldwater himself was far too transitory a figure to have much longstanding historical significance ascribed to him-- although he was a decent fellow who was in many ways ahead of his time-- especially in his cogent and precise criticisms of the Left and the rise of the Washingtonian bureaucratic Leviathan, which he and other conservatives of the time ( like Buckley) so correctly warned about. And about which they still warn .

What still continues to puzzle me (although not really) about the Left collectively ,at this stage ,is the persistent, continued obsession with Trump. I suspect there is something deeply psychological in the collective psyche of Democrats, involving a type of hysterical projection. Nonetheless, Y'all really need to get your act together. If you persist in Orange-man-bad to the exclusion of everything else you will merely continue the doom-loop you've  been on for years now. You.need to look long and hard at what passes for leadership amongst your own ranks, both the personalities and the faltering dynamics-- frankly some of the more pathetic examples in the history of this great nation. Realistically , the Left, as presently constituted, is helplessly moribund. The ideology, the motivating factors , the spirit is no longer there; what is left of the Left are the same old recycled lies and  manipulations --which no longer work and have long reached their expiration dates.

Now that the pressure is off , and the election is over, I suspect the more feral members of the Demo Party coalition will officially be released  to resort to  street violence in the weeks and months ahead. I hope I'm wrong.

Apogee, you stated its hard to comprehend " how Trump would serve"

Dude, he just won a national election !!

In a post from a week or so ago, you seemed to eschew the modern GOP (prior to Trumpism) in favor of some other incarnation of the GOP…forgive me for not recalling or articulating what that was. But in any case, do you believe Trump is the best person to get to that vision you have? What qualities does he have that serve that purpose?

In regards to the ‘obsession’ you referred to, the source and fervor of it seems virtually identical to the fanaticism the Right had with Obama during his terms. 

apogeewrote:

In a post from a week or so ago, you seemed to eschew the modern GOP (prior to Trumpism) in favor of some other incarnation of the GOP…forgive me for not recalling or articulating what that was. But in any case, do you believe Trump is the best person to get to that vision you have? What qualities does he have that serve that purpose?

In regards to the ‘obsession’ you referred to, the source and fervor of it seems virtually identical to the fanaticism the Right had with Obama during his terms. 

1) The ability to get elected President 2 out of 3 times.

2) His improving capacity to surround himself with genuinely loyal and competent people this time around. Some real heavyweights.

3) He knows what the American people want him to do, and has forged a solid and enduring connection with his supporters.

4) He knows how to deal with other leaders and has demonstrated that capacity in the past.

5) A professional real-world grasp of business and economics.

I could go on.

I appreciate your curiousity and questions.

See ya

There's no question that Trump "has forged a solid and enduring connection with his supporters." It will be interesting to see whether he can deliver real benefits to them. Or whether he'll just scapegoat various groups to keep his supporters satisfied.  

Make this go viral.

Climbing bans can happen anywhere. Don’t allow them to say what we can do in the great outdoors if it’s not evidenced to damage in any significant way the environment, heritage or anything or anyone any more than any other supported and practiced activity like walking on government built walking trails and cycling.

Big corporations (even those whose role it is to protect the environment and heritage) damage irreparably more than climbing has or could.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCDh7alidUo/?igsh=MXMzd3N2YXdzMWUyZg==

Nice, C. Miller! Let's see some Ibanex photos! In the Sierras de la Guadarrama. First the Peñalara: 

There's two of um!

Not every crack in Europe is bolted: 

Next, another Ibanex at the Peña Pintada

The rock I was climbing. nearby

Donald Thompsonwrote:

1) The ability to get elected President 2 out of 3 times.

2) His improving capacity to surround himself with genuinely loyal and competent people this time around. Some real heavyweights.

3) He knows what the American people want him to do, and has forged a solid and enduring connection with his supporters.

4) He knows how to deal with other leaders and has demonstrated that capacity in the past.

5) A professional real-world grasp of business and economics.

I could go on.

I appreciate your curiousity and questions.

See ya

I'm looking forward to seeing those loyalists all either get fired, resign or go to jail again! I do genuinely want to see some normalcy in his four years but for some reason I  highly doubt it.

Mark E Dixonwrote:

Lori, would you be interested in hearing my insights, such as they are, from a retired ER doc? 

I retired >5 years ago after >20 years in the pit, so am definitely not especially up to date, and definitely was never a vascular specialist, so my thoughts may or may not be valuable. 

Regardless, I'm happy to share what I do know.

Lmk here, (or via DM if you would rather keep things private)

Best wishes to Tony- he sounds like a fighter and will probably outlive all of us

Thank you, Mark. Of course I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m always a little conflicted when diving too deeply into non-climbing topics but they certainly are “life” topics.  I am not big on lawsuits and I suspect it would be an enormous hassle with bad outcome. But something really stinks about this situation. Tony could easily have lost his leg, and he still could. I’ve been taking pictures all along and sharing them with his surgeon. I can’t see how any Dr could look at these pics and say it’s OK, don’t worry about it.  In fact, the one piece of advice I got from his office by phone really has me concerned – – that I should run down to Rite Aid and get some long ace bandages and wrap that leg from his foot to his hip for compression and come back on November 21.  With a massive active infection going on there, I can only imagine the damage that would have done.

I am very sensitive to ageism these days. When my mom was a strong and independent younger woman, she was always given the best care. But as she aged, I noticed that her doctors did the bare minimum, and she was too weak and unable to advocate for herself.  And I feel like seeing Tony as a 75 year old man at his very lowest point no one was very concerned about his outcome. Not even a phone call from the surgeon the day after such a surgical failure.

I even took exception to the ambulance guy when he walked into our house and shouted everything. There was no need to shout. We could both hear just fine but he assumed we must be deaf.  

—-

Donald, I REALLY want to take the bait about why everyone is “so obsessed” with Trump but will try to refrain. I could go pages, and I have a feeling Wendy could outdo me,   But what is the point anyway? I am going to focus on two things going forward – –1. Trying to learn from this election so we can do a better job in the future and  2. Doing my best to deprive Trump of my daily attention and focus. That will be a huge challenge.

—-

If all goes well, we are going to visit my home away from home tomorrow – – my little cave, and find out whether there is any possibility of climbing this wall.  

I think someone lived here and the more often I visit this beautiful place the more intensely curious I am about the people who inhabited this land.  I want to know what they ate, how they hunted, what their medicine was, and how they connected to the Earth and the rock and the plants. This has become almost more important to me than climbing .   

Carl Schneiderwrote:

Make this go viral.

Climbing bans can happen anywhere. Don’t allow them to say what we can do in the great outdoors if it’s not evidenced to damage in any significant way the environment, heritage or anything or anyone any more than any other supported and practiced activity like walking on government built walking trails and cycling.

Big corporations (even those whose role it is to protect the environment and heritage) damage irreparably more than climbing has or could.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCDh7alidUo/?igsh=MXMzd3N2YXdzMWUyZg==

I was going to ask you about this yesterday as I was surprised that I've seen nothing about it on MP.

Victor Creazziwrote:

I was going to ask you about this yesterday as I was surprised that I've seen nothing about it on MP.

There is a thread on this topic in the General Climbing forum---has been for several days. I'm too tech incompetent to be able to post the link, but I'm sure someone else will---or you should be able to find it yourself pretty easily

Arapiles thread on MP

Well, Donald, I wonder if you can understand the deep, widespread skepticism that exists on both sides of the aisle of that characterization. And the incredulity that if a candidate rose to power (twice!) on the Left resembled even half of these properties (along with the same identity-fanatical cult following), the Right would be equally, and likely extremely more inflamed.

With Tony and the hospital again and my best friend in the hospital with kidney failure again I just had to get out before I start this day and have some gratitude for life itself., I thank God for my kidneys every day, which is kind of weird but diabetics are known to have kidneys fail for more than the general population. I kinda like mine.  

So this couple square miles of land is where I come so often. I’ve had my eye on this ridge forever and I’m wondering if I couldn’t hike to the summit and drop down to see this upper wall of welcome to Joshua Tree. I don’t think it’s been climbed! But it sure looks beautiful from the ground. 

Cold wind today, bright, sunny sky, no snakes, no bugs, and I haven’t seen a big horn sheep in a while. Also haven’t seen any rain.

Too woke?

To project a future based upon our better nature,

Understanding the route is not simple or clear but attempting to include . . .

The disenfranchised, under represented, multifaceted, bewildered many.

The genuine casualties--collateral damaged.

Too woke?

Conceding defeat with humility and grace,

Attempting to pull us together, to look for solutions, encourage optimism.

When the current wolves in power are at the door,

Will I forsake the sacred truth that is clear?

. . . or attempt to save my skin and sell my humanity?

We’ve seen this play before.

I'll be honest -- sometimes it's hard to believe some of the folks here are over 50. 

Any who , you'll need some religion over the next 4 years, courtesy of the peeps over at Babylon Bee-- once one o
f the more cancelled sites on the net.

View of the Mountain Fire from where I live… 

What is most disturbing is the fact that no air support is going on, like what happened on all the other fires we have had.

Guy, that does look disturbingly (alarmingly) close. Are you on pre-evacuation?